THAT THERE MAY BE A FAIRER SOCIETY IN GHANA - ONE IN WHICH ALL THE PEOPLE, NOT JUST A POWERFUL AND GREEDY FEW, BENEFIT FROM THE NATION'S WEALTH!

Monday, 28 May 2018

Africa's Exciting Future

Judging by the vox populi sampling of public opinion conducted by the more responsible sections of the Ghanaian media, on Africa Day, which fell on 25/5/2018, it is pretty obvious that most Ghanaians clearly understand the harm corruption does to nations on the czontinent, including their own motherland, Ghana.

In light of that, this year's theme for the celebration of AU Day, which focused on corruption, was well chosen - public sentiment is obviously against high-level corruption and the importance of winning the fight against graft across Africa is not lost on the continent's mostly-youthful population.

That said, speaking personally, even as a 65-year senior citizen of Nkrumah's Ghana, I am very optimistic about the future of our wonderful and beautiful country - as one also is about the futures of all the other member-states of the AU.

One of the reasons for my optimism is because I am aware that a Ghanaian-American businessman, Mr. Alfred Aning, has built the most modern private-sector command centre in the U.S., and his Ghanaian company, Roudofa Ghana Limited, is willing to replicate it in Ghana for entities in both the public and private-sectors of our national economy. In a sense, I have metaphorically seen Africa's corruption-free future in my mind's eye, as it were.

Consequently, when, not if, our leaders finally get to understand what a powerful real-time audit tool a national command centre at the presidency can be in empowering governments of the day to effectively protect the public purse, and neutralise the many white-collar criminals currently secretly siphoning off taxpayers money with impunity, the high-level corruption slowly bleeding Mother Ghana dry, will become a distant nightmarish dream we once experienced as a people. Fantastic.

As regards the many benefits of an African common market, luckily for us, unlike the early days of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) - the predecessor of the AU - today, there is not a single nation on the continent, whose leaders do not see the many opportunities increased intra-African trade in an African common market will open up for their people. They are all virtually aware that an entrepreneurial culture evolving from that new trade paradigm will create wealth and self-employment for millions across the continent.

And, best of all, evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence, nanotech, biotech, the internet of things, blockchain, machine-learning, etc., etc., will eventually empower our much-talented younger generation of Africans to successfully transform the continent into one that is truly modern and prosperous, within the next two decades at the most.

We are entering an era in which in the not too distant future, using their digital devices, villagers in far-flung places across the continent who don't speak each other's language, for example, will be able to have free-flowing and meaningful conversations with each other in real time - thanks to cutting-edge technology that instantaneously translates their different languages. Wow. The myraid of challenges confronting it today, notwithstanding, Africa has an exciting future ahead of it. Definitely. Cool.